boar, or bore, is always remarkable for something respectable; such as wealth, character, high birth, acknowledged talent-or, in short, for something that forbids people. . . to cut him dead. . . . Old stagers in the club know and avoid the fated corner and armchair which he haunts; but he often rushes from his lair on the unexperienced.'

In the end the club was known as the 'Half-read'; it became 'an asylum of doting Tories and drivelling quidnuncs'; 'and,' said Alvanley, 'when the seventeenth bishop was proposed, I gave in,' for 'I really could not enter the place without being reminded of my catechism.'

LETTER CXXV. p. 184.

Yesterday I went with Moore to Sydenham:-' On this occasion another of the noble poet's peculiarities was, somewhat startlingly, introduced to my notice. When we were on the point of setting out from his lodgings in St. James's Street, it being then about mid-day, he said to the servant, who was shutting the door of the vis-à-vis, "Have you put in the pistols?" and was answered in the affirmative. It was difficult,-more especially, taking into account the circumstances under which we had just become acquainted,-to keep from smiling at this singular noonday precaution.'-MOORE.

Kemble in Coriolanus:-Coriolanus was John Philip Kemble's best part, and it was in Coriolanus that he bade his farewell to the stage (1817).

An exhibition of a different kind:-The ridiculous creature known as 'Romeo,' 'Diamond,' and 'Cockadoodle-Doo' (his real name was Robert) Coates (1772-1848) had a very high opinion of himself as an actor, especially in such brilliant and romantic parts as Romeo and 'the haughty, gallant, gay Lothario,' which Rowe conveyed from Massinger into his own Fair Penitent. His absurd performances, which were absurdly dressed, were received with howls of joy his death-scenes, in particular, being rapturously redemanded. In the end, he was hooted from the stage. The son of a rich West Indian (he was born in Antigua), he started at Bath, where he drove a curricle (with a brazen Cock on the bar, and the device, 'While I live I'll crow'), and sported many diamonds. He called himself the 'Celebrated Philanthropic Amateur,' got into difficulties, fled the country to Boulogne, married there (somehow), and after compounding with his creditors, returned to England, and lapsed into a becoming obscurity.

LETTER CXxviii. p. 187.

I am in a state of ludicrous tribulation:-Moore's Note to this

passage explains the two preceding numbers (cxxvi. and cxxvii.),
and runs as follows:-'The passages here omitted contain rather
too amusing an account of a disturbance that had just occurred in
the establishment at Newstead, in consequence of the detected mis-
conduct of one of the maid-servants, who had been supposed to
stand rather too high in the favour of her master, and, by the airs
of authority which she thereupon assumed, had disposed all the
rest of the household to regard her with no very charitable eyes.
The chief actors in the strife were this sultana and young Rushton;
and the first point in dispute that came to Lord Byron's knowledge
(though circumstances, far from creditable to the damsel, after-
wards transpired) was, whether Rushton was bound to carry letters
to "the Hut" at the bidding of this female. To an episode of
such a nature I should not have thought of alluding, were it not for
the two rather curious letters that follow, which show how gravely
and coolly the young lord could arbitrate on such an occasion, and
with what considerate leaning towards the servant whose fidelity he
had proved, in preference to any new liking or fancy by which it
might be suspected he was actuated towards the other.' A dispute,
in fact, between a couple of servants—a maid and a man-who
chose, for whatever reasons, to give themselves airs: a dispute
too, in which neither was right, but Buttons was less wrong than
Ribands. With the materials available, that is about all that can
be said; and that is probably more than enough.
Rushton was the 'little Page' of the First Harold :—
And of his train there was a little page,

A peasant boy who served his master well;
And often would his pranksome prate engage
Childe Burun's ear, when his proud head did swell
With sullen thoughts which he disdained to tell.
Then would he smile on him, and Alwin smiled,
When aught that from his young lips archly fell
The gloomy film from Burun's eye beguiled.

Why do you say that I dislike your poesy :-Moore had written to Byron in praise of the First and Second Harold, proof-sheets of which he had seen at Rogers's house. It would seem, too, that if he had praised the new, he had done so at the expense of the old -that is to say, of English Bards.

I fixed upon the trite charge of immorality, because I could discover no other:- Heigho!' he writes to Moore in 1820, 'I believe all the mischief I have ever done, or sung, has been owing to that confounded book of yours.' For the 'trite charge of immorality,' see English Bards:

Who in soft guise, surrounded by a choir

Of virgins melting, not to Vesta's fire,

With sparkling eyes, and cheek by passion flushed,
Strikes his wild lyre, whilst listening dames are hushed
'Tis Little! young Catullus of his day,

As sweet, but as immoral, in his lay!

Grieved to condemn, the muse must still be just,

Nor spare melodious advocates of lust.

Pure is the flame which o'er her altar burns

From grosser incense with disgust she turns:

Yet kind to youth, this expiation o'er,

She bids thee 'mend thy line, and sin no more.'

Damned, deceitful-delightful woman:- -The Knight of Snowdoun, a farce by Thomas Morton (1764?-1838), was produced at Covent Garden, 5th February 1811. Liston played Macloon.

LETTER Cxxix. p. 188.

The perfect propriety of the question to be put to ministers:The occasion of this letter was Lord Liverpool's introduction (Thursday, 27th February 1812) in the Lords of the FrameBreaking Bill: a measure designed to compel individuals in whose houses frames should be broken to give information thereof to the magistrates'; to apply provisions likely to secure detection, and to render the offence' in question 'capital.' The Bill, a temporary one, made necessary by 'transactions which had taken place and were still going on in the County of Nottingham,' had been introduced in the Commons by Mr. Secretary Ryder on the 14th, and read for the third time on the 20th February, was the occasion of Byron's maiden speech. In the present letter he is found concerting (at Rogers's suggestion) with Lord Holland as to the preliminaries of an attack on the Government. He replied to Lord Liverpool, and was followed by Lord Holland, who derided the Ministers for not attempting an answer to his discourse. The Lord Chancellor (Eldon), and Lords Lauderdale, Grosvenor, Harrowby, and Grenville took also part in the debate. For the effect of Byron's oratory, see Letter cxxxiv. ; for the Speech itself, Vol. iv. of this issue.

LETTER CXXX. p. 189.

To Master John Cowell:- Breakfasted with Mr. Cowell, having made his acquaintance for the purpose of gaining information about Lord Byron. Knew Byron for the first time, when he himself was a little boy, from being in the habit of playing with B.'s dogs. Byron wrote to him to school to bid him mind his prosody. Gave

me two or three of his letters. Saw a good deal of B. at Hastings; mentioned the anecdote about the ink-bottle striking one of the lead Muses. These Muses had been brought from Holland, and there were, I think, only eight of them arrived safe. Fletcher had brought B. a large jar of ink, and, not thinking it was full, B. had thrust his pen down to the very bottom; his anger at finding it come out all besmeared with ink made him chuck the jar out of the window, when it knocked down one of the Muses in the garden, and deluged her with ink. In 1813, when Byron was at Salt Hill, he had Cowley over from Eton, and pouched him no less than ten pounds. Cowell has ever since kept one of the notes. Told me a curious anecdote of Byron's mentioning to him, as if it had made a great impression on him, their seeing Shelley (as they thought) walking into a little wood at Lirici (sic), when it was discovered afterwards that Shelley was at that time in quite another direction. "This," said Byron, in a sort of awestruck voice, "was about ten days before his death." Cowell's imitation of his look and manner very striking. Thinks that in Byron's speech to Fletcher, when he was dying, threatening to appear to him, there was a touch of that humour and fun which he was accustomed to mix with everything.'-MOORE, Diary, 11th June 1828.

I had the honour, etc. :-The match was played in 1805, according to Byron; in 1806, according to those learned in cricket. (See Appendix B.)

LETTER CXxxi. p. 190.

The women are gone to their relatives :—See ante, p. 397, Note to Letters cxxvi., cxxvii., cxxviii.

LETTER CXxxii. p. 191.

'Galt,' his Travels in Ye Archipelago:-This is the Voyages and Travels in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811. . . . Statistical, Commercial, and Miscellaneous Observations in Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Serigo, and Turkey (London, 1812) of John Galt (1779-1839). In 1809 Galt, who had left Greenock and the Custom House for London and Letters (he had the usual tragedy in his pocket) as early as 1804, was obliged, for his health's sake, to go South. At Gibraltar one day, 'in a withering levanter,' which confined him to the library, he saw Byron, and noted, without knowing who he was, the 'neatness and simplicity," and at the same time the 'peculiarity of style,' which distinguished his attire, the fact that his 'physiognomy,' though disfigured by what was undoubtedly the occasional scowl of some unpleasant

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reminiscence (it appears by the sequel that this 'made a stronger impression upon me than it did upon many others')-was 'prepossessing and intelligent,' while 'the general cast of his features was impressed with elegance and character.' The next day Galt took ship for Sardinia, and, when Byron and Hobhouse came aboard the packet, it seemed to him that 'in the little bustle of embarking their luggage his Lordship affected. . . more aristocracy than befitted his years on the occasion.' Also, he wouldn't put on the passenger at all (as Hobhouse did): on the contrary, he 'sat on the rail, leaning on the mizzen shrouds, inhaling, as it were, poetic sympathy from the gloomy rock, then dark and stern,' etc. About the third day out from Gibraltar 'Byron relented from his rapt mood . . . and became playful'; produced pistols, and approved himself the best shot on board at a bottle,' but not preeminently so'; helped the captain to catch a turtle-'I rather think two'; and did his part (we may assume) in hooking a shark, 'part of which was dressed for breakfast,' but tasted without relish,' for 'your shark is but a cannibal dainty.' And so on, and so on. Galt was amused by and pleased with Hobhouse, who told him bawdy stories-(stories more after the matter and manner of Swift than of Addison')—and was 'altogether an advantageous specimen of a well-educated English gentleman.' But Byron, who ate little, and drank less, and persisted in 'sitting amidst the shrouds and rattlings in the tranquillity of the moonlight, churming an inarticulate melody,' seemed almost apparitional' to him-suggested, in fact, that classic of the genre, a mystery in a winding-sheet crowned with a halo.' 'Tis true there were times when he was 'familiar and earthy'; but, as a rule, 'his dwelling was amidst the murk and the mist, and the home of his spirit in the abysm of the storm, and the hiding-places of guilt. Even at two-and-twenty you couldn't meet him-or rather Galt couldn't—' without experiencing a presentiment that he was destined to execute some singular and ominous purpose.' Thus Galt, some twenty years after the event, of Byron at sea; and as Byron admitted to Lady Blessington that, while he saw that Galt was mild, equal, and sensible,' he 'took no pains to cultivate his acquaintance,' the sentiment may be accepted as natural, if the expression may not. But at Cagliari-(where Galt rather thinks that he may very possibly have seen the real original of Lara in the pit of the theatre)—the acquaintance ripened; on the voyage to Sicily the champagne was uncorked and in the finest condition'; and at Malta, despite the lack of 'a salute from the batteries'